Colombos 


Crabfe  of  f  0e  CofomBoB 


IRELAND  AND  COLUMBUS. 


Father  Flattery's  Brochure  Brings  Up  Some 
Strong  Arguments. 

The  Rev.  Hugh  Flattery,  the  well-known 
Harlem  clergyman  and  one  of  the  best 
authorities  on  early  American  history, 
has  made  extended  and  diligent  research 
into  the  ancestry  of  Columbus.  He  has  un 
earthed  facts  which  have  led  to  some  very 
inter  esting  conclusions,  and  these  he  has  set 
forth  in  a  hand  some  little  brochure,  entitled 
"The  Cradle  of  the  Colombos."  It  will 
prove  particularly  interesting  to  all  Irish 
men,  as  showing  the  existence  of  another 
link  in  the  chain  that  binds  Ireland  and 
America. 

This  pamphlet  traces  the  patronymic  of 
the  discoverer  to  its    source  in  the  city  of 
Bobbio,  Lombardy.      This   once  renowned 
center  of    culture  was  founded  in  the  sixth 
century    by    St.  Columban,  a  distinguished 
Irish  abbott.     The  name  of    this  champion 
of  arts  and  letters  was  adopted  as  a  patrony 
mic  by  one  of    the    ancestors  of  the  discov 
erer.    In  other  words,  Father  Flattery  be 
lieves  that  had  it  not   been  for  an  Irishman 
New  York's  Columbian   Celebration   might 
have    been    conducted    under    some    other 
name.      This    pamphlet    is    an    interesting 
sequel  to  an  address  by   General  Butterfielr1 
published  in  the  MOBNING  ADVEKTISER  so- 
months  ago,  in  which  facts  were  adduce 
show    that  St.  Brendan,  also   an  Irish- 
""   visited  America    centuries    bef o 
•us. 


of  $e  <Dofom6o* 


BY 


THE  REV.  HUGH   FLATTERY 

AUTHOR    OF         *f 

"THE  POPE  OF  THE  NEW  CRUSADE,"  ETC. 


NEW  YORK 

UNITED    STATES   BOOK    COMPANY 

5  AND  7  EAST  SIXTEENTH  STREET 


CHICAGO:  266  &  268  WABASH  AVE. 


COPYRIGHT,  1892, 

BY 
UNITED  STATES  BOOK  COMPANY 


[All  rights  reserved.] 


Who  was  the  First  Columbus? 

Etymology  of  the  Patronymic. 

Columbian  Nomenclature. 

Word-Picture  of  an  Ancient  Literary  Landmark. 

Historic  Retrospect  of  Bob  bio. 

Aboriginal  Homestead  of  the  Ancestry  of  Christo 
pher  Columbus. 


PREFACE. 


It  is  the  unambitious  aim  of  this  monograph  to 
unfold  in  brief  outline  the  aboriginal  home  of  the 
Colombos,  as  well  as  the  interesting  Hiberno-Biblical 
surname  of  the  "  Admiral  of  the  Indies,"  as  discover 
able  in  the  dim,  historic  twilight  of  pre-mediasval 
times. 

To  the  illustrious  Saint  Columban  the  abbatial 
city  of  Bobbio  owes  its  Organic  existence  ;  while  to 
the  powerful  emperor,  Saint  Henry  II.,  the  Lombard 
city  is  indebted  for  municipal  freedom,  chartered 
liberty,  together  with  the  official  *  muniments  of 
plenary  civic  autonomy. 

Saint  Henry  was  the  fifth  emperor  of  the  Saxon 


12  PREFACE. 

race  to  wear  the  imperial  crown  of  Charlemagne  ; 
but  he  has  worn  it  so  as  to  enhance  its  splendor  by 
the  brighter  effulgence  of  heroic  virtue  both  in  him 
self  and  his  far-famed  consort,  Saint  Conegunda. 

It  is  but  natural  that  sovereigns  of  so  lofty  a  type 
of  character  should  have  chosen  as  beneficiary  of 
their  regal  munificence  a  commonwealth  founded  by 
the  Apostolic  Columban,  so  well  beloved  of  yore 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Burgundy,  and  in  the  embryonic 
cities  along  the  Rhine. 

In  this  fair  land  of  Columbia,  the  Celt  and  the 
Teuton  are  potential  factors  in  building  up  a  system 
of  civilization  alike  unprecedented  in  the  achievements 
of  the  past,  and  the  possibilities  of  the  future.  If  their 
average  lot  in  life's  struggle  afford  scant  leisure  to 
probe  the  subtleties  of  ancient  history,  they  must 
feel  a  keen  interest  in  all  that  bears  upon  the  incu- 
nabular  details  of  a  family  immortalized  by  the 
"  Revealer  of  the  World." 


PREFACE.  13 

To  the  German  and  Irish-American  citizens  of 
the  United  States  it  would  be  difficult  to  present  two 
nobler  standards  of  moral  excellence  than  Saint 
Henry,  the  gem  of  the  imperial  Teutonic  Crown,  and 
Saint  Columban,  the  pride  of  the  Emerald  Isle. 

H.  F, 


ARMS  OF  BOBBIO. 


BOBBIO  is  in  the  order  of  time  one  of  the  first 
cities  of  Europe  to  possess  an  authorized  coat  of 
arms.  In  this  civic  escutcheon,  Columbianism  is 
conspicuously  prominent.  The  device  consists  of 
a  red  cross  upon  a  white  ground.  Perched  upon 
the  limbs  of  the  cross  two  doves  carrying  olive 
branches  salute  the  hallowed  symbol  of  Atonement. 
Upon  this  sacrificial  altar  of  Calvary  was  consum 
mated  the  peace-triumph  enunciated  to  the  shep 
herds  of  Bethlehem.  A  golden  shield  supports  the 
ancient  crown  of  the  Kings  of  Lombardy,  encircled 
with  an  ornamental  wreath  of  laurel.  The  twin 
doves  represent  the  Old  and  the  New  Dispensa 
tions,  the  end  of  a  deluge  never  to  be  repeated, 
and  the  advent  to  Bobbio  in  its  dove-like  Founder 
of  that  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLOMBOS. 


PATRONYMICS  have  interesting  pedigrees.  This  is 
particularly  true  in  respect  of  our  own  country,  called 
after  Americo  Vespucci.  But  the  principle  is  appli 
cable  to  all  times  and  peoples,  from  the  eternal 
Rome  of  the  suckling  Romulus  to  the  legislative 
capital  on  the  Potomac,  named  after  the  Father  of 
his  country.  The  origin  of  the  names  of  distin 
guished  personages  has  ever  been  capricious.  Thus, 
a  Roman  emperor,  whose  real  name  was  Bassianus, 
affected  a  short  cassock  called  by  the  Gauls  caracalla, 
whence  the  imperial  Caracalla  himself.  If  our  noun 
pertinacity  does  not  come  from  the  emperor  Perti- 
nase,  it  is  certain  that  his  gaiter  or  top  boot,  caligay 


iS  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLOMBOS. 

has  given  his  name  to  Caligula ;  while  the  Caesarean 
operation,  whereby  they  were  brought  into  life,  is 
the  accepted  etymology  of  Scipio,  Julius,  and  all 
the  Caesars. 

Applying  this  line  of  thought  to  the  greatest  of 
maritime  discoverers,  two  things  become  at  once 
apparent.  First,  there  must  have  been  some  person 
by  whom,  first  in  the  order  of  time,  the  name  Co 
lumbus  has  been  borne  ;  secondly,  it  must  be  deeply 
interesting  to  determine  with  approximate  accuracy 
who  that  primal  personage  is,  thus  establishing  the 
true  fans  et  origo  of  the  most  distinguished  name  in 
American  history.  Such  is  the  genesis  of  the  fol 
lowing  observations. 

In  the  sixth  century,  two  Irishmen  appear  on  the 
historic  stage,  Columba  and  Columban.  Identical 
in  name,  nationality,  and  professional  pursuits,  they 
have  differed  widely  in  various  respects.  Columba 
was  born  in  Ulster  in  521  ;  Columban  in  Leinster 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COL  OMB  OS.  19 

some  two  and  twenty  years  later,  543.  While  Co- 
lumba  has  evangelized  most  of  Scotland,  continuing 
to  this  day  the  popular  idol  of  Caledonia,  Columban 
does  not  appear  to  have  developed  much  interest  in 
that  chivalrous  country.  There  is,  I  believe,  no 
conclusive  evidence  that  Columban  has  ever  set 
foot  in  either  the  Highlands  or  the  Lowlands.  The 
Scottish  form  of  Columba  is  Colon,  identical  with 
the  Irish  Gaelic,  modified  by  the  Latin  Columba, 
which,  upon  Ireland's  conversion  to  Christianity, 
became  so  popular  with  the  Bards  and  Druids.  In 
the  Spanish,  also,  the  primitive  Colon  of  the  Gaels 
continues  in  its  unchanged  dress,  making  the  full 
Hispanic  appellative  of  the  Admiral  of  the  Ocean, 
Cristobal  Colon — Christopher  Columbus. 

As  Colon  of  Ulster  unto  the  pagan  Picts  of  North 

Britain,  such  was  Colon  of  Leinster  to  Burgundy, 

Switzerland,    and    Italy.      In    dove-like   gentleness 

'  they  have  borne  each  the  olive-branch  of  Christian 


20  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLO M BOS. 

peace,  amid  regions  agitated  with  strife  and  war. 
The  metaplasm  in  either  name,  by  which  Columba 
becomes  respectively  Columbkille  and  Columbanus, 
has  been  adopted  for  purposes  of  contradistinction. 
Besides,  terminal  variety  in  names,  while  of  frequent 
occurrence,  is  of  no  material  significance.  Thus 
Bede  and  Bedan,  Offa  and  Offano,  Thega  and 
Tegano  are  mutually  convertible  names. 

It  would  seem,  indeed,  to  be  a  usage  inherited 
from  pre-Christian  times,  as  is  evident  from  the 
variety  of  suffix  common  among  the  Hebrews. 
Thus  Jehovah  expresses  simple  being  or  existence — 
I  AM.  By  this  is  implied  the  changeless  identity  of 
the  self-existent,  or  uncreated  Deity;  but  the  par 
ticular  phase  of  providential  favor,  or  interposition, 
needed  for  the  nonce  by  the  Israelite,  is  enunciated 
in  copious  terminal  modifications.  When,  for 
instance,  there  is  question  of  daily  sustenance  it  is 
Jehovah-Jirieh, —  the  bountiful  God.  If  it  be  a 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COL  OMB  OS.          21 

matter  of  fields  and  flocks,  it  is  Jehovah-Robi. 
When  war  is  impending,  the  form  is  Jehovah-Nissi, 
as  a  rallying-point  :  but  if  hostilities  are  over,  and  a 
truce  is  to  be  proclamed,  the  suffix  is  Jehovah- 
Shehem.  Similarly  as  to  Colon  Cill,  euphemized 
Columbkille,  the  Dove  of  the  Church,  from  his 
having  been  professionally  a  churchman.  Apart, 
however,  from  variety  in  the  sense  here  illustrated, 
Columba  was  in  both  instances,  a  sobriquet,  or  term 
of  endearment,  expressive  of  the  winsome  disposi 
tion  and  delightful  individuality  of  the  teachers 
toward  their  scholars,  pupils,  attendants,  and  fol 
lowers.  And  whereas  there  has  been  in  Ireland  in 
this  sixth  century  a  third  Columba,  contempora 
neous  with  the  two  great  missionaries,  but  other 
wise  unknown  beyond  his  quiet  official  sphere  as 
Abbot  of  Tyrdaglas,  in  Munster,  the  conclusion  is 
irresistible  that  the  popular  pet-name  was  taken 
either  from  the  winped  nuncio  of  peace  at  the  end 


22  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COL  OMB  OS. 

of  the  Deluge,  "  Columba  Noachi"  Noah's  Dove  :  or 
from  the  apparition  at  the  Baptism  in  the  Jordan  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  "  in  Columbcz  specie"  in  the  sem 
blance  of  a  dove,  or  else  from  eager  emulation  to 
exemplify  the  evangelical  injunction — "  Be  ye  there 
fore  prudent  even  as  the  serpent,  and  simple  like 
unto  the  dove." 

A  similar  change  of  name  occurs  in  the  person  of 
St.  Winfrid,  better-known  by  the  physiognomical 
description  of  Boniface.  (755,  A.  D.)  But  there 
is  abundant  evidence  that  this  is  not  the  first  person 
named,  or  nick-named  Boniface.  It  is  distinctively 
Latin,  and  thence  in  popular  speech  Italian — buona- 
faccia.  There  have  been  a  dozen  Popes  of  the 
name.  One  hundred  years  before  St.  Winfrid's 
birth,  an  Italian  bishop  named  Boniface  had  lived 
and  died  in  Caledonia.  Upon  his  death  in  630,  he 
was  buried  at  Rosmark,  the  capital  of  the  county  of 
Ross,  Scotland.  Earlier  still  another  Italian  Bon- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLOMBOS.          23 

iface  had  been  martyred  in  Greece,  about  the  year 
307,  A.  D. 

Not  so  as  to  Columba  and  its  derivatives.  This 
Irish  name  is  first  in  the  field  in  connection  with  any 
person  of  the  masculine  gender.  Moreover,  the 
Colons  of  the  sixth  century  are  the  first  persons  so 
named  in  Irish,  Scottish,  and  Spanish  history. 
Besides  being  of  noble  lineage,  through  the  O'Don- 
nells  of  Gartan  in  Donegal,  and  therefore  a  con 
spicuous  personage  in  Ireland,  Columba  of  the 
Hebrides  had  already  achieved  distinction  in  the 
Ulster  University  of  Beuchor,  when  Columba  of 
Leinster  was  born,  A.  D.  543.  The  latter  outlived 
the  former  by  a  score  of  years,  dying  in  615,  at 
Bobbio,  in  Italy,  wherewith  his  name  is  inseparably 
interwoven. 

The  episcopal  see  of  Bobbio  takes  its  historical 
pedigree  from  the  far-famed  school  which  St.  Co- 
lumban  here  founded  as  a  duplicate  of  his  Irish 


24          THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COL  OMB  OS. 

Alma  Mater,  Beuchor.  The  history  of  Bobbio  is  the 
history  of  the  Hiberno-Italian  Colon,  the  greatest  of 
Irish  missionaries.  But  it  is  also  the  true  record  of 
Italian  Colombianism.  The  Columbanian  Institute 
of  Bobbio  is  the  very  raison  d'etre  of  the  city  itself. 
attracted  thither  by  the  virtue,  scholarship,  and 
eloquence  of  the  hermit-founder,  a  few  families 
settled  on  the  bank  of  the  brook  Bobio,  whence  the 
Abbatial,  collegiate  city  of  a  thousand  years. 

As  a  seat  of  learning  Bobbio  has  continued  from 
the  outset  to  shine  in  ever  increasing  lustre.  The 
royalties,  from  Queen  Theolinda,  who  rocked  its 
cradle,  to  the  empress  St.  Cunegunda,  have  loved  to 
visit,  patronize,  and  enrich  the  sequestered  hamlet 
during  the  first  centuries  of  its  pre-mediseval  life. 
For  Bobbio,  the  reader  must  remember,  is  the  day- 
star  of  the  Universities.  Ancient  before  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  had  been  heard  of,  before  old  Bologna, 
" Mater  studio-rum"  had  donned  its  swaddling- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CO  LOME  OS.  25 

clothes,  this  initial  Columbanian  college  carries  us 
back  to  the  corner-stone  of  Monte  Cassino,  and  the 
archaic  medical  gymnasia  of  Salerno  in  southern 
Italy,  and  Montpelier  in  France.  Even  its  famous 
neighbor,  Pavia,  is  the  fair  daughter  of  Bobbio.  At 
best  this  renowned  filiation  can  claim  no  higher 
ascendancy  than  that  implied  in  the  Horatian 

dictum  : 

"  O  !  Matre  pulchra  ! 

Filia  pulchrior !  " 

Situated  between  the  Ligurian  Republic,  and  the 
martial  capital  of  Lombardy,  the  sages  of  Bobbio 
attracted  the  adolescent  flower  of  Genoa  the  Superb, 
and  of  the  imperial  stronghold  of  the  Goth  and  the 
Longobard.  To  filch  the  Golden  Fleece  of  Colom- 
banian  distinction  has  been  the  laudable  ambition  of 
the  Italian  nobility  from  the  dawn  of  the  feudal 
Houses  of  Visconti,  Trivulzio,  Sforza,  and  numerous 
others.  In  those  days  to  be  a  Bobbian  graduate 


26     THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COL  OMB  OS. 

was,  in  current  parlance,  to  have  captured  the  Blue 
Ribbon  of  Oxford,  to  have  won  a  double  first,  to  be 
an  Oxonian  par  excellence,  a  typical  Cantabrigian,  or, 
what  in  American  phraseology  is  rightly  considered 
a  much  more  enviable  mark  of  sterling  ability,  a 
Yaleite,  or  Hartford  man.  It  was  the  guerdon  of 
honest  worth,  and  the  symbol  of  established  excel 
lence. 

Such  is  the  fountain  source  of  Italian  Colum- 
bianism.  Bobbio  grew  to  be  instinctively  beloved  and 
admired  of  all  great  and  good  men.  It  was  espe 
cially  the  magnet  of  attraction  for  brilliant  ecclesias 
tics.  The  Apostolic  See  was  wont  to  regard  the 
bright  northern  Pharos  as  the  embattled  citadel  of 
orthodoxy  against  the  ensanguined  vicissitudes  of 
Hun,  Goth,  Frank,  Teuton,  and  Ghibelline.  The 
successors  of  Columban  have  been  unexceptionally 
intellectual  athletes,  after  the  heart  of  the  poet- 
philosopher-saint  himself. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLO  MB  OS.     27 

In  an  incomplete  Bobbian  catalogue  of  one  hun 
dred  and  one  Abbots,  I  find  that  forty-two  have  been 
elevated  to  the  episcopate.  This  does  not  include 
fifty  other  bishops  of  the  Bobbian  diocese,  whose 
episcopal  residence,  during  more  than  two  centuries, 
had  been  the  Columban  Abbey.  Of  these  four  have 
been  enrolled  in  the  Kalendar,  and  repose  beneath 
a  costly  mausoleum  erected  to  their  honor  by  King 
Luitprand.  Several  have  been  created  Cardinals, 
notably  Castiglione,  promoted  by  Pius  IV.  in  recog 
nition  of  his  valuable  services  before  the  Council  of 
Trent.  In  the  ninth  century,  the  Abbot  was  made  a 
feudatory  ruler,  with  the  hereditary  title  of  Count, 
holding  jurisdiction  over  all  the  neighboring  territory, 
himself  subject  only  to  the  imperial  sovereignty. 
The  first  prince- Abbot  was  Hilduin,  (846 — 86 1)  some 
time  imperial  chancellor  of  Lothair,  and  sub 
sequently  archbishop  of  Cologne. 

Among    the  conspicuous     laity    of   Bobbio    are 


28  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CO  LOME  OS. 

families  which  ante-date  the  Crusaders.  The  re 
nowned  House  of  Malaspina,  a  plant  from  the  out 
set  of  local  growth,  would  alone  make  the  ancestral 
fame  of  any  commonwealth.  As  marquisate  of 
Massa  and  Carrara,  it  has  been  prominent  since 
the  ninth  century,  while  its  primitive  annals  are 
among  the  crystal  springs  of  inspiration  whence  flow 
the  early  lays  of  the  Troubadour.  But  the  crowning 
glory  of  this  immemorial  Apennine  homestead  is  the 
rare  distinction  of  having  been  embalmed  for  all 
time  in  that  archetypal  creation  of  the  human  intel 
lect,  the  DIVINA  COMMEDIA.  To  have  been  Dante's 
host  in, the  flesh  were  in  itself  no  obscure  quater- 
ing  in  the  proudest  escutcheon  of  heraldry.  It  was 
in  the  halcyon  days  of  the  Malaspina,  and  in  the 
chaotic  convulsions  of  the  Guelph-Ghibelline  fac 
tions,  that  the  Bard  of  Florence  began  what  he  so 
amusingly  designates  as  his  "  exile  "  in  the  moun 
tains  of  Lombardy.  Among  the' curios  which  still 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CO  LOME  OS.          29 

attract  the  antiquary  are  "  Dante's  Tower,"  and  a 
house  called  ever  since  "  Dante's  House."  As 
guest  of  the  Malaspina  the  irascible  poet  poses 
paradoxically  enough  as  Head  Pacificator  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Trebbia.  To  send  Dante  on  a 
pacific  mission  seem  like  pouring  vinegar  upon 
nitre.  But  whether  or  not  he  may  have  been  the 
firebrand  to  kindle  among  the  Bobbiese  the  lurid 
torch  of  that  Ghibellinism  which  he  loved  so  well, 
it  is  certain  that  in  behalf  of  the  erring  scions  of 
the  leading  house  he  went  as  intermediary  to  the 
bishop  of  Lemi,  a  prelate  staunchly  Guelph,  and  who 
could  stand  no  nonsense  at  the  hands  of  flexible 
trimmers.  In  his  triple  pilgrimage  Dante  meets  in 
Purgatory,  Conrad  Malaspina  : — 

"  One  turned  to  Virgil  ; — one  addressed  a  shade 
Who  sat  there  crying :  '  Conrad,  up,  and  view 
The  grace  of  God  here  signally  displayed.'  " 


30          THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COL  OMB  OS. 

This  was  the  father  of  Morello  Malaspina  who 
received  and  entertained  Dante  during  his  exile. 
The  poet  had  not  yet  been  to  Bobbio,  but  the  fame 
thereof,  and  that  of  its  leading  house  is  suitably 
touched  in  the  passing  interview  : — 

"  Conrado  Malaspina  was  my  name — 
Sprung  from  the  older-one  ; — the  love  I  bear 
To  mine  own  race,  here  burns  with  purer  flame. 
Oh,  never  have  I  seen  thy  land,  I  said ; 
But  where,  throughout  all  Europe  may  be  found 
The  spot  to  which  thy  glory  hath  not  spread  ? 

"  The  fame  which  o'er  this  house  such  lustre  throws 
Makes  both  its  nobles  and  the  land  renowned ; 
E'en 'he  who  ne'er  was  there,  their  greatness  knows. 
I  swear  by  all  my  hopes  to  mount  on  high — 
The  name  thy  offspring  won,  both  by  the  sword 
And  generous  deeds,  they  do  not  now  belie. 
Habit  and  nature  have  such  grace  bestowed 
That  though  the  world  pursues  a  vicious  lord 
Upright  alone  they  spurn  the  evil  road." 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COL  OMB  OS.          31 

It  will  be  in  the  memory  of  Dantesque  students 
that  in  the  24th  Canto  of  the  Inferno  the  pilgrim 
songster  again  refers  to  a  crushing  victory  gained 
by  the  House  of  Malaspina  to  the  ruin  of  the  Flor 
entines. 

When  the  opening  eleventh  century  blazed  forth 
in  a  galaxy  of  emperors,  kings,  queens,  bishops, 
warriors,  and  statesmen  conspicuous  alike  in  vir 
tue  and  literary  culture,  it  was  apparent  to  Europe 
that  the  luminary  of  that  gorgeous  constellation  was 
Gerbert  of  Aurillac,  successor  during  twenty  years 
of  St.  Columban.  Having  swept  the  gamut  of 
sacred  and  secular  literature,  he  was  the  first  French 
man  to  ascend  the  Fisherman's  throne,  A.  D.  999. 
From  the  plains  of  Lombardy  to  the  Gulf  of  Genoa 
joyous  holiday  was  kept,  for  Bobbio  had  now  at 
tained  the  zenith  of  its  glory.  Its  gifted  master, 
confessedly  the  colossus  of  his  age,  whether  as  phil 
osopher,  mathematician,  man,  musician,  or  canonist, 


32 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLO M BUS. 


was  now  Pope  Sylvester  II.  Having  already  been 
incumbent  successively  of  the  Sees  of  Rheims  and 
Ravenna,  there  was  wanting  but  the  Popedom  to 
set  the  plenitude  of  honor  upon  the  greatest  of  all 
the  Abbots  of  Bobbio. 

Having  introduced  to  Europe  the  use  of  Arabic 
figures,  originated  the  jubilee  and  the  crusade,  and 
founded  in  the  person  of  St.  Stephen  the  kingdom 
of  Hungary,  Gerbert  passed  hence  together  with  the 
literary  eclipse  which  his  golden  life  had  dispelled. 
Eleven  years  later,  the  seven-hilled  city  witnessed  a 
truly  gorgeous  pageant.  At  the  vestibule  of  St. 
Peter's  basilica  stood  Benedict  VIII.,  where  amid 
the  glitter  of  imperial  insignia,  and  the  mingled 
pomp  of  civic  and  religious  ceremonies,  St.  Henry 
and  St.  Cunegunda,  attended  by  Roman  senators, 
the  hierarchy  and  nobility,  with  the  flower  of  the 
army,  received  sacred  unction,  with  the  jewelled  dia 
dems  of  sovereign  dominion. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLO  MB  OS.    33 

Three  Columbian  incidents  here  synchronize  in  a 
chromatic  picture  which  the  historian's  prism  reflects 
in  kaleidoscopic  crystallization,  (i.)  This  solemn 
function  of  coronation  was  first  introduced  into 
Christian  Europe  by  one  of  the  two  Irish  Colons 
under  consideration,  when  Columba  of  Donegal 
anointed  and  set  the  golden  sphere  upon  his 
compatriot,  King  Aiden,  successor  to  Comal  on  the 
Scottish  throne  of  Alba,  in  574.  A.  D. 

(2).  The  Roman  coronation  of  Saint  Henry  oc 
curred  in  February  1014,  amid  the  ringing  of  numer 
ous  bells,  followed  by  salvos  of  artillery.  The  dying 
echoes  of  this  religious-military  fete  were  taken  up 
by  the  naval  battle  then  waging  on  the  eastern  coast 
of  Ireland.  It  is  known  in  history  as  the  battle  of 
Clontarf.  The  pentarchy  of  Ireland  united  all 
Columban's  race  in  a  successful  effort  to  extinguish 
Norse  domination  in  the  Emerald  Isle.  The  King 
of  the  Orkney  Islands,  and  the  Isle  of  Man,  with 


34          THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CO  LOME  OS. 

hordes  of  European  mercenaries,  on  booty  bent 
had  rallied  to  the  doomed  cause  of  Denmark.  With 
Norse  ascendency  within  the  Kingdom  of  Ireland 
fell  Brian  Borii  on  Good  Friday,  1014  A.  D.  Just 
while  the  Teutonic  hierarchy  and  nobility  were  bid 
ding  greeting  to  their  newly  consecrated  dynasts, 
those  of  Ireland  were  assembled  in  the  primatial 
city  of  Armagh  to  mourn  the  fallen  House  of  Kin- 
cora. 

(3).  Finally,  the  first  favour  which  Henry,  upon 
his  coronation,  solicited  at  the  hands  of  Benedict 
VIII.  was  the  elevation  of  Bobbio  to  an  episcopal 
See,  1014.  The  civic  honor  of  urban  dignity,  with 
chartered  symbol  of  municipal  authority,  had  al 
ready  been  bestowed  by  this  emperor,  thus  making 
Bobbio  one  of  the  most  ancient  cities  of  Europe. 
About  one  century  later,  Genoa  was  elevated  to  an 
Archbishopric,  when  pope  Innocent  II.  constituted 
Bobbio,  thitherto  in  the  jurisdiction  of  Milan,  one 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLO  ME  OS. 


35 


of  the  suffragan  Sees  of  the  Genoese  Metropolitan, 
reserving  to  the  Papacy  the  government  of  the  Co- 
lumban  Institute,  1133,  A.  D.  The  present  popu 
lation  of  the  city,  including  the  environs,  is  15,000. 
Thus  about  three  hundred  and  two  years  before 
the  birth  of  Columbus  at,  or  near,  Genoa,  or  Cogo- 
letta,  his  native  diocese  had  become  officially  con 
nected  with  Columbian  Bobbio  ;  or,  more  correctly, 
the  Lombard  city  had  been  canonically  incorporated 
into  the  ecclesiastical  district  of  Genoa.  It  is  matter 
of  history  that  his  ancestors  came  originally  from 
Lombardy.  It  is  agreed  among  historians  that  the 
several  Colombo  families  of  Piedmont  and  the  Gen 
oese  Liguria  in  the  fifteenth  century  had  ramified 
from  one  common  stock,  and  a  single  parentage. 
Other  Colombos  than  those  of  Lombardy  there 
are  in  chronological  order  absolutely  none.  The 
aboriginal  stem,  therefore,  alone  remains  to  be 
accounted  for. 


36  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CO  LOME  OS, 

It  is  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that  the 
primal  patronymic  is  derived  from  Bobbio.  This  is  in 
the  best  sense  a  question  of  patronomatology.  The 
father  of  Christopher,  the  "  Admiral  of  the  Indies," 
was  himself  a  Colon,  and  the  son  of  a  Colon,  or 
Colombo.  The  Colombii  are  notoriously  one  of  the 
ancient  Bobbiese  families.  That  is  the  recognized 
cradle  of  the  Lombard  stock,  whereof  all  other 
Italian  Colombii  are  branches.  This  Columban 
City,  the  amplification  of  the  Columban  Institute, 
has  no  competitor.  Ages  before  its  name  appears 
in  any  other  form,  or  in  relation  to  any  house,  or 
clan,  or  family,  this  pristine  Columban  lamp  had 
shone  in  unborrowed  effulgence.  It  is  consenta 
neous  to  the  laws  of  etymology,  in  harmony  with 
analogy,  and  suitable  to  the  unbroken  thread  of 
traditional  evidence  to  identify  the  bright  name  of 
Columbus  as  the  abiding  quenchless  beam  of  Bob- 
blio's  noontide  brilliancy.  There  is  an  acceptable 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COL  OMB  OS. 


37 


fitness  between  the  radiant  morning  of  the  City  by 
the  Trebbia,  its  thousand  golden  years  of  sunny 
fruitfulness,  and  the  grateful  apotheosis  of  its  illus 
trious  scion  in  the  mellow  eventide  of  this  nineteenth 
century.  It  is  an  Orient  not  unworthy  the  perma 
nent  discoverer  of  the  fair  Land  of  the  West. 
Writers  on  floriculture  tell  of  a  plant  which  flowers 
in  the  cottage-gardens  of  half  the  world,  but  is  ex 
clusively  known  in  American  Flora  as  the  Even 
ing  Primrose.  If  the  fragrant  creature  has  really 
come  hither  in  the  world's  vesper-age,  its  trem 
ulous  voyage  athwart  Neptune's  Kingdom  has 
been  piloted  by  that  beacon-light  of  the  tempest- 
tossed  mariner  whose  roseate  Phcebus  is  Columban 
Bobbio. 

The  Spaniards  have  a  family  of  herbs  or  shrubs 
by  no  means  exclusively  indigenous  to  their  own 
country,  but  which  the  Hispanic  botanists  have 
patriotically  designated  Pavonia,  in  honour  of  their 


38  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLO  MB  OS. 

renowned  traveller  and  botanical  student, — Don 
Josef  Pavon.  This  is  in  strict  accordance  with  the 
genius  of  universal  nomenclature,  whether  scientific, 
geographical,  or  pharmaceutical.  Conversely,  there 
is  no  lack  of  surnames,  since  their  first  appearance 
in  the  eleventh  century  of  our  era,  which  can  be 
naturally  traced  to  the  birth  place,  the  aboriginal 
homestead,  or  native  hamlet  of  the  founder  of  a 
given  clan  or  family. 

Cologne  was  built  by  Claudius  Agrippa,  and 
named  after  his  wife,  Colonia  Agrippina — 57  B.C. 
The  city  could  of  course  have  been  built  by  any 
other  magnate  ;  but  would  it  have  come  down  to  us 
as  Cologne,  if  the  builder's  wife  had  not  been  named 
Colonia  ? 

As  in  the  British  peerage  there  probably  never 
would  have  been  an  earldom  of  Oxford  had  not  a 
score  of  colleges,  with  domes,  towers,  and  spires, 
risen  upon  the  Isis  and  the  Cherwell,  making  Eng- 


Bancroft 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLO M BOS.          39 

land's  Bosphorus  an  architectural  forest,  so  there 
probably  never  had  been  an  Italian  named  Colum- 
but  if  the  Irish  Columban  had  not  filled  the  air  of 
upper  Italy  with  the  elevating  associations  of  his 
new  Beuchor  on  the  Bobio.  It  is  not  any  parliament 
which  has  created  the  fame  of  Oxford,  but  it  is 
Oxford  which  has  evoked  parliamentary  homage. 
It  was  not  any  family  of  Colombos  who  launched 
the  archaic  gymnasium  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Apen 
nines,  but  it  was  the  supernal  lustre  of  that  scholastic 
emporium  which  found  patronymic  embodiment  in 
the  commendable  aspirations  of  self-respecting  Ital 
ians.  The  home  of  letters  is  invested  with  irresist 
ible  fascinations.  The  sons  of  men  needs  must  bow 
in  unquestioning  fealty  to  the  Olympian  casket  of 
genius.  But  more  winsome  still  is  that  baptized 
Athens  springing  from  ruined  Rome,  that  venerable 
scriptorium  of  the  tireless  palceographist  and  illu 
minator  which,  through  a  long  barbaric  night,  spans 


40  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLO  MB  OS. 

the  gulf  between  the  Theodosian  empire  and  the 
meteoric  dynasty  of  Bonaparte,  and  whose  palimp 
sests,  and  peerless  library  are  still  the  prized  treas 
ures  of  the  Vatican,  Ainbrosian,  Turinese,  and  other 
European  collections. 

Moreover,  the  Lombard  town,  San  Colombano,  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  City  of  Lodi,  is  a  busy  market- 
borough  in  the  Apennines  of  some  five  thousand 
inhabitants.  This  land-mark  demonstrates  in  itself 
the  extent  to  which  the  magnetism  of  the  Columban 
hermitage  has  impressed  itself  not  merely  on  the 
religious  and  mental  character,  but  even  the  topog 
raphy  of  the  Lombard-Venetian  province.  A  par 
allel  and  contemporaneous  instance  is  seen  in  an 
cient  England,  unchanged  to  our  own  day,  where  the 
other  Colon,  Apostle  of  the  Picts,  is  perpetuated  in 
the  market-town  of  Saint  Colum,  in  the  county  of 
Cornwall. 

The  District  of  Columbia,  U.   S.,  the  capital  of 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLO  MB  OS.          41 

Ceylorf,  the  two  places  named  Colombo  in  Savoy, 
those  in  France,  and  the  numerous  other  localities 
of  Col'imbian  appellation  are  without  exception 
traceable,  through  the  Genoese  Navigator,  to  the 
Irish  Columban  Abbot  of  Bobbio.  Perhaps  the 
most  remarkable  instance  of  this  is  the  fitful  etymo 
logy  of  the  tropical  capital  of  the  Singhalese.  It  is 
the  old  Taprobaue  of  Athens  and  Rome,  and  the 
Sevendib  of  the  Arabian  Nights.  Its  earliest  name, 
however,  is  Kalan-Totto,  the  Kalany  Ferry,  from  the 
near  by  stream,  Kalany-Gauga.  This  became  grad 
ually  corrupted  into  Kalambu,  by  which  it  was 
known  in  the  i4th  century  of  our  era.  Some  two 
centuries  later,  upon  the  arrival  of  the  Portuguese, 
Kalambu  had  further  modified  to  Kolamba,  or  Co- 
lumbu,  which  the  mariners  interpreted,  and  all  Por 
tugal  henceforth  wrote  Colombo,  in  honor  of  Chris 
topher  Columbus.  But  why  ?  because  at  the  time 
under  consideration,  1517,  Europe  was  mourning 


42  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COL  OMB  OS. 

the  "Revealer  of  the  Globe,"  with  the  absorbing 
earnestness  of  posthumous  appreciation.  Ferdinand 
had  been  aroused  by  public  indignation  from  his 
comatose  lethargy  of  ingratitude.  The  crown  of 
Castile  had,  in  1513,  ordered  pompous  obsequies 
unto  the  Grand  Admiral  of  the  Ocean,  whose  remains 
were  solemnly  removed  from  Valladolid  to  Seville 
by  the  Guadalquiver,  to  repose  "  in  a  sepulchre 
entirely  new,"  at  St.  Mary  of  the  Grottoes,  in  a  vault 
under  the  Chapel  of  Christ. 

Like  unto  the  Admiral's  tomb  is  his  family — 
"  entirely  new."  His  genius,  life-work,  superb 
feats, — all  are  new,  unrivalled,  unique.  His  stain 
less  integrity,  his  undeviating  fidelity,  his  patience, 
longanimity,  and  trusty  confidence  in  God,  in  his 
friends,  and  in  the  great  purpose  of  his  life  bespeak 
the  artless  nature  of  Noah's  model  nuncio,  the 
gentle  dove.  Only  a  Columban  famjiy-tree  could 
have  borne  so  distinctively  a  Columban  fruitage. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLO  MB  OS.          43 

The  reader  will  perhaps  object  that  this  is  but 
conjectural  evidence,  furnishing  an  argument  at 
best  of  verisimilitude.  But  this  plausible  difficulty 
vanishes  when  confronted  with  a  trustworthy 
parchment  from  the  Bobbian  archives,  which  gives 
an  alphabetical  list  of  the  families,  both  extant  and 
extinct,  of  the  Abbatial  City,  down  to  the  date  of 
the  Manuscript,  namely,  1611,  A.  D.  This  list  the 
reader  will  find  transcribed  in  extenso  by  Bertacchi, 
in  his  interesting  Monografia  di  Bobbio  (Penerolo, 


This  muniment  contains  the  names  of  134  fam 
ilies,  arranged  in  alphabetical  order,  and  gives 
various  interesting  details  as  to  their  advent  to 
Bobbio,  whether  as  refugees  from  Florentine  turbu 
lence  in  the  angry  Guelph-Ghibelline  commotions,  or 
during  the  punic  war  of  the  Trebbia,  in  the  day  of 
Hannibal's  victory  over  Scipio,  218  B.  C.,  or,  finally, 
as  pilgrim-votaries  of  letters  attracted  by  the  Co- 


44          THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COL  QMS  OS. 

lumban  library  and  Institute.  These  families,  the 
author  observes,  had  all  been  established  at  Bobbio 
in  1533,  A.  D.,  so  long  as  to  have  duplicated,  the 
younger  branches  either  migrating  to  the  near  by 
Piedmont  and  Genoa,  or  else  becoming  lease 
holders  of  new  homes  at  an  annual  rent  payable  to 
the  Columban  Abbey.  On  this  authentic  roll,  stands 
at  number  50  the  family  of  the  Colombos,  in  the 
Italian  plural,  thus, — "  Columbii."  This  I  regard 
as  the  parent  stem  of  the  patronymic  of  the  Discov 
erer  of  the  New  World. 

There  is  given  but  one  entry  of  "  Colombii,"  clearly 
suggesting  the  dispersion  to  contiguous  localities  of 
the  second  and  subsequent  generations  of  descend 
ants  from  the  primal  stock,  exclusively  shown  in 
the  authoritative  Columbanian  register.  In  this  one 
recognized  fountain-source,  and  in  the  implied  mi 
gration  of  the  junior  off-shoots,  the  reader  will  find 
the  key  to  two  established  facts,  namely :  the  con- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COL  OMB  OS.          45 

sensus  of  opinion  which  declares  Lombardy  to  have 
held  the  original  homestead  of  the  Colombos ; 
secondly,  the  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  the  exact 
birthplace  of  Christopher  Columbus.  The  scattered 
kinsfolk  would  periodically  exchange  friendly  visits, 
during  one  of  which  a  child  born  in  the  distant  home 
of  an  uncle  or  aunt  would  be  taken  later  to  the 
parental  homestead  to  be  baptized  in  the  parent's 
parish  church,  and  duly  enrolled  in  the  parochial 
record  of  Baptisms,  an  earnest  of  legitimacy,  and 
abiding  guide  to  identification.  But  such  a  seeming 
discrepancy  would,  however  natural,  supply  ample 
material  to  effusive  village  gossips  for  various  ver 
sions  of  the  true  incident. 

I  trust  that  this  feeble  effort  to  unfold  the  pedigree 
of  a  distinguished  name  may  enlist  ulterior  investi 
gation.  Meanwhile,  if  anything  could  brighten  in  the 
American  mind  the  fair  image  of  Columbus  it  is  the 
religious-literary  setting  in  which  it  is  here  present  3d. 


46  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COLOMBUS. 

The  master  spirit  of  Oceanic  navagation  wings  its 
aboriginal  flight  from  that  peaceful  Lombard  eyrie 
built  by  the  aquiline  priest  of  Ireland's  golden  age, 
and  ermined  with  the  quickening  unction  of  the 
Jordanic  Dove.  Having  carried  gladsome  tidings  to 
benighted  realms,  it  is  in  turn  borne  upon  the  lumi 
nous  pinions  of  umblemished  integrity  and  majestic 
triumph  to  its  own  central  niche  in  the  Pantheon  of 
the  Immortals. 


THE    END. 


